A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Putting together music programs has always been somewhat of a challenge.  This year it is exponentially harder.

We cannot perform before live audiences so we must record all the students in advance. We did this for the Veteran’s Day program then had some technical issues at the last minute, so the classes were unable to see the performances.

The principal is determined to avoid this and asked me to plan the Christmas program before we left for Thanksgiving Break. I gave him an outline of what each class would do and spent the week of Thanksgiving filling in the details.

When we returned, he asked me to have all the recording done before testing started the following week.  It was a stretch but I put together a recording schedule and started working with the classes.

I decided to do bucket drumming with the 7th and 8th grade classes.  It would reinforce rhythmic concepts and they seem to enjoy hitting on things.

Not having the budget to purchase official buckets, I gathered cat litter buckets and the students spray painted them red and green.  This took multiple days, but the result was pretty good, and most of the paint landed on the buckets.

The students also wrapped the drumsticks with red and green electrical tape.

All was well until the school closed for two days.  That put the recording behind schedule.  There was no one to do the recording due to absences in the office staff.  I kept practicing with the classes and put recording on hold.

Then the principal decided to proceed with the recording even though testing was happening in my room. We recorded in the cafeteria.

All was well until the 7th and 8th graders had to switch to remote learning for two days.  I adjusted the recording schedule, again, and took the remaining buckets home to finish the painting. Then the decision was made to keep 7th and 8th grade off campus until after Christmas break.

So now we have red and green buckets all ready to go and no one to play them.

I guess we can use them for Cinco de Mayo.

The rest of the program was recorded and is ready to be shown on Friday.

At least that is the plan…